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Comment by WhyNotHugo | Hacker News Reader

I don't know anyone who uses Messenger, yet, I've heard of people moving to specific countries where it's the de facto and you can't have a social life without it.

I'm also aware of how iMessages and SMS are used in the US, yet this is very US-specific, and I don't believe any other country uses SMS.

For Chinese people, WeChat is the standard, and what pretty much anyone uses.

In Argentina and the Netherlands (and I believe much of the EU), WhatsApp is ubiquitous.

Yet, I don't know a single person who uses either SMS or Messenger, or iMessages.

So what truly fascinates me, is how different companies put so much work into developing such sophisticated messaging apps, but they're all reinventing the wheel and each consumed in different regions -- I think nobody would have guesses years ago that we'd have so many different apps used in different countries, and not at all inter-operating with each other.

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Did you ever use AIM, ICQ, MSN, Y! Messenger? I'm quite certain that in a decade, there will be another batch of dominant messengers "reinventing the wheel" (IG & TikTok I'm looking at you). Real-time Communication is just such a crucial part of people's lives that people will never stop working on it, even if it feels like it's been solved.

I get chat these things evolve, and change over time.

My fascination is that we've very equivalent things (eg: WhatsApp and Telegram aren't that far apart), duplicated even in the same generation.

I did use ICQ, MSN, IRC then WhatsApp, but they didn't belong to the same periods.

A lot of it is driven by differing low end data plans. In some countries even the cheapest tariff has adequate data allowance, in other countries, data is an expensive add-on.

So it's entirely conceivable that in some places, someone with a limited income only has SMS bundled as a free service on their plan, with data either not enabled, or expensive pay-as-you-go. Therefore in that demographic SMS messaging will be the primary method.

In the UK, almost all tariffs come with a bundle of data, so SMS has all but died out (except for automated parcel delivery updates, and 2FA authentication et al.).

Huh, interesting. I'd never though there might be places were SMS are free.

Data was always way cheaper in Argentina, which is why WhatsApp quickly killed SMS, to the point where it's never really used anymore.

It’s always sobering to remember that we live in bubbles.

I'm in the US. SMS / Apple Messages seems to be the default for everyone I interact with. I use Messenger sometimes, but usually only when someone else initiates.

My favorite is using Apple Messages since I can send/receive from any of my Apple devices. I use macOS for other reasons, but being able to send a text from my computer is awesome.

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